
I highly recommend a read or listening to the Audm recording for the rich American Southern story of Rhiannon Gidden’s primary influence, Wilmington musician Frank Johnson. So much of Rhiannon Gidden’s personal history and the story of Mr. Johnson’s legacy touch the Piedmont, NC region, including Greensboro, Mebane, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham. US History has all but glossed over the early port city Wilmington story, which includes an 1898 racial massacre and the subsequent exodus of its black citizens, not only knocked loosed the foundations of a rising African American middle class but also came close to obliterating the deep cultural memory of what had been among the most important black towns in the country for more than a century. The people who might have remembered Frank Johnson best, not just as a musician but as a man, were themselves violently unremembered.
Tomorrow is My Turn (available below Apple Music)
Rhiannon Giddens performed at the Coen brothers’ promotional concert for Inside Llewyn Davis, and she so impressed T Bone Burnett with her talent that he offered to produce her on the spot. He helped choose the classic American songs, working as an old-school A& R man (i.e., Artist and Repertoire). Patsy Cline’s urban country “She’s Got You” and Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s gospel blues “Up Above My Head” are perfect for Giddens’ flexible, nuanced vocals. With a backup band similarly top-notch—including legendary Funk Brothers percussionist Jack Ashford and veteran Nashville session bassist Dennis Crouch—Giddens is surrounded by star power. Yet Giddens shines brightest.
“I hope that people just hear American music,” says Giddens. “Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, and rock—it’s all there. I like to be where it meets organically. They’re fun songs, and I wanted them to have as much of a chance as they could to reach people who might dig them but don’t know anything about what I do. If they’re introduced to me through this record, they might go listen to other music I’ve made and make some new discoveries.”
“Is there anything Rhiannon Giddens can’t sing?…[she] sings with inflections that bridge mountains and deserts.”
— The New York Times
“The electrifying singer and banjo player gives fresh voice to old American traditions.”
— Smithsonian Magazine
“For nearly a decade, Giddens has been heralded as a luminary in the world of Americana, and for some time, she was one of the few African-American faces represented.”
— American Songwriter
Rhiannon Giddens – You’re the One (Lyric Video)
Rhiannon Giddens’ “You’re the One,” the title track to the new album, is due August 18 on Nonesuch Records.
YOU’RE THE ONE
(Rhiannon Giddens/Lalenja Harrington)
I knew you were the one.
Were my one and only
And I knew
That you would always know me
Cause you were the one
Who kept me from feeling
So sad and lonely in my life and
I never knew
Life could be so wonderful
That there could be someone
Who was so beautiful
And I never knew
That I could be so free
To love someone like you and
I wanna love you forever
And I’ll be with you
For worse and for better
And I never thought I’d fall
But you’re the one
I thought my life was drawn
In shades of gray and
That was how
I would live my everyday and
Aimless no direction found
My destiny was going through the motions of a life and
Then you came along
With your sweet sweet smile and
Then you put your cheek
Right next to mine and
All those shades of gray slowly turned into a
New technicolor world and
I’m gonna love you forever
And I’ll be with you
For worse and for better
And I never thought I’d fall
And I’m gonna love you forever and
I’ll be with you for worse and for better
And I never thought I’d fall
But you’re the one
You’re the one
Your smile contains the sun
Rays of glory
You’re the one
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Rhiannon Giddens: “You’re the One”
Rhiannon Giddens shares a lyric video for the title track to her 2023 album; You’re the One. The song was inspired by a moment Giddens had with her son not long after he was born (he’s now ten years old, and she has a fourteen-year-old daughter as well). “Your life has changed forever, and you don’t know it until you’re in the middle of it, and it hits you,” Giddens says. “I held his little cheek up to my face and was just reminded, ‘Oh my God, my children—they have every bit of my heart.’”